Lacy Alpaca Scarf

Remember way back when I began a long-promised scarf for my friend Sarah? Well, I finally got it blocked the other day and it turned out pretty nicely if I do say so myself.

It did take me frogging it once for me to like the finished product. I initially had been knitting it single-stranded on size 6 needles. But it was turning out a little bit too dense for my taste so I started it over with the yarn double-stranded on size 10 needles. Much better!

I ended up using 6 skeins of Andean Treasure in Hot Rod Heather, which is 100% Alpaca. I LOVE the softness of this yarn and it's so warm. Sarah will be back in Skagway in just a couple days...hope she likes her scarf that she's waited on for about three year!

Stealth project

So, I've been working on a project for quite some time ( I keep getting distracted on other stuff!) and I'm finally to the point where I'll be throwing it in the washing machine tonight and crossing my fingers that it will felt okay.

The reason it's been taking me so long is because I've been taking notes and writing the pattern as I go along. This is not something I would normally do, but this project marks the first time that I'll be creating a design submission in hopes of getting my pattern published!

The deadline is approaching, so hopefully I'll be able to share something with you all within the next few months. In the meantime, here's a sneak peak of a very small portion of the project...I don't want to give anything away! It's made from multiple different worsted weight feltable wools from my stash.

Guess what I got in the mail yesterday?!

The other day I decided I needed a fringe twister from WEBS for any scarves I'll be making on my new loom. Well, I can't just order a fringe twister without throwing a few other things in the order with it, now can I?

I've been really curious to see how different sock yarns will look when worked up into a woven shawl or scarf, so I decided to take advantage of WEBS' Anniversary Sale and order some of the skeins I've been eyeing. Okay, okay, so not all of the yarns were on sale, but I justified that the money I saved on the Kureyon kind of maybe just a little bit made up for the money I plunked down for the other stuff...yeah, I'm not really convincing myself of that either, but I'm okay with it.

First off, I ordered 4 skeins of the discontinued Kureyon #213 to go with the 4 skeins of that color that I already have. I grossly underestimated how much Kureyon I would need to make my next scarf/shawl. I began to warp up my loom the other day and had already gone through over two balls of Kureyon before I had even gotten half of the warping done. So, these will make it possible to create a lovely wrap out of the teals, grays, greens, and golds.

Next up is Auracania Ranco Multi #309. It's not exactly the colors that I thought it would be, but nonetheless I'm sure it will make something amazing in shades I'm not normally drawn to.

And now for Auracania Ranco Multi #302. Again, not quite the colors I thought it would be (on WEBS there's flecks of magenta and green, but not in the skeins I got), but I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Here's some Valley Yarns Franklin Hand-Dyed. It looked like a light blue/teal in the photo on WEBS, but it's much much more green in person. Luckily I like green!And, finally, some Trekking XXL sock yarn. It's much more of a deep teal than what shows here (the light was fading fast on my deck, so I didn't capture the true colors) and I can think of a certain boss of mine who has a birthday coming up, who just so happens to love teal.

Woohoo! I can't wait to get finished with my stealth project this weekend so I can focus on weaving up some of these amazing yarns!

Hookalicious Award....What?!?!

I was so pleasantly surprised yesterday when I got home from a long and stressful day at work (per usual) and checked in with Ravelry (also per usual) and found a note from Laurie of Crochet Liberation Front. Crochet Liberation Front, or CLF for short, is a group I recently joined on Ravelry that aims to liberate crocheters from any stereotypes associated with crocheting. Anyway, I had posted my colorful granny afghan in one of the discussion threads and I guess she saw it and bestowed upon me a Hookalicious Award on the CLF blog!

Now, I know I was pretty proud of my afghan, more so because I actually finished a project than anything else! But what I didn't expect was the reaction both here on my blog and also in my little communities on Ravelry and how much people seemed to like it. Needless to say, it was definitely the ego boost I needed. Keep the positive comments coming!

Playing catch up

The last week or so has been a little busy and I haven't been able to post much since so much has been going on. The big event over the last week was that I turned 30 on April 13! Unlike other people, I didn't have any existential moments or internal crises over the big day. I think any pressure I felt about it was more from everyone else constantly asking me if I felt old or different or distinguished or wise or decrepit or if my bones felt like they were going to turn to dust at any moment. You get the idea. So, I was sort of relieved to have it all be over and focus on what I think will be a pretty damned good decade.

Anyway, here's a brief and very random rundown of what's been going on with the non-knitting side of me...

My birthday present from Jeff arrived on Friday. I know, I know. After 4 years of college rowing I swore I would never get on another erg in my lifetime. But our rec center got a couple of rowing machines last year and I tentatively got back on one day and realized that it wasn't as bad as I remembered. Talk to me in a month and I'll tell you how I feel about it. At least I don't have a coach breathing down my neck AND I can watch TV while I do it, which would have never been allowed at OSU!

Here it is all set up in our (tiny) spare room upstairs. It's a Concept2, just like the ones we trained on in college and like the one I owned before I sold it to come up to AK. As you can see, there's a lot going on in the room. It serves myriad purposes, such as our closet, my yarn room, our tv/reading room, loom storage space, and knitting blocking area. And now it has an erg! It's set up right in front of the tv so I can watch tv while I pull my little heart out. I did my first workout on it yesterday and it felt great! A little sore today, but I have to start somewhere.

During my birthday weekend, we went for a walk up the Taiya River in Dyea with Lori, Andus, and the dogs. It was a gorgeous day and we saw a few eagles and luckily no bears!
The walk up the river was a great way to work off some of the great food that we had consumed at my birthday party the night before at Trisha and Spencer's place. It was a lot of fun, but I ate so much I pretty much had to be rolled to the car. Note to self...don't mix bratwursts and sparkling cider. Not a good gastronomic combo...Anyway, here's a shot of me and my little buddy, Josh, eating the delicious dirt cake. The crazy smile on his face continues to crack me up.
Here's a shot of the cuter-than-anything breakfast that my boyfriend fixed me for my birthday breakfast. Yeah, that's right. It's a face. And he's going to kill me for posting this and showing the world his softer (and dorkier) side.

And, finally, it was time for me to blow out the candles on my mini-cake. This was after a longer-than-planned day of work on my actual birthday, when I came home to find the house perfectly cleaned and a cute homemade birthday card waiting for me on the table. **Sigh.** What a great day.

My first weaving FO

My first project on the loom was officially finished last week. All the Ravelers who gave me advice on this proved to be correct. It DID soften up a lot in the wash and it doesn't so much resemble a burlap sack anymore. I really wish it could have been a little bit longer, but it will have to do. I have a fringe twister on the way from WEBS so I'll be taking care of the mangy fringe as soon as that package arrives. You can definitely see how, over the course of the scarf, the tension of my weaving changed. In the beginning it was very loose, but by the end everything had tightened up and in my opinion was looking pretty good! And the edges are a little squidgy, but all in all, it was a good practice project.

Right after finishing this scarf I warped up another one using the hot fuschia Cascade Jewel I recently got from WEBS, however our downstairs was getting a little bit cluttered so I took the loom upstairs where it has yet to be used since. I am trying to finish some projects first before I continue on with anything else. Even my knitting/weaving A.D.D. has its limits.

Noro Granny Afghan is FINALLY finished!

I've been working for the last month, off and on, to complete a granny square afghan out of about 9 different colorways of Noro. I've been wanting to do something like this for a long time, having been inspired by images of Crazy Quilts and also by many vintage granny square afghans , however the thought of changing colors every row in order to achieve the multi-colored look had really kept me from creating anything.

Enter one of my favorite yarns, Noro Kureyon. I have always been fascinated by all the different colorways and the seemingly endless hues that make up each skein. I figured that this would be the easier way to incorporate a lot of color without having to change color each round. Initially things went pretty quickly, but as with most projects I do I tired of it quickly and am actually quite proud of myself for seeing it through to completion. At one point I seriously thought that this project would languish forever in the corner, stacks of squares just begging to be pieced together to form something beautiful. But the desire to have it grace my knitting chair trumped my lack of motivation and I finally finished the border last night.

You can read more about this blanket here and here, and you can follow it on Ravelry here, and I'm so excited to FINALLY say that it's finished, but I'll probably block it soon to straighten out the edges and soften up the wool.

Details:

Approximately 30 skeins of about 9 different colorways of Noro Kureyon

Crochet hook size H

Notions: Tapestry needle

Here are some photos of the blanket lounging around my house...This is where I intend to use it the most. What better way to spend time in my knitting corner than to be covered in inspiring colors!But, I also suspect that it will get some use on our deck when we're sitting out there on chilly evenings playing Scrabble.
Or I could also see it as a decorative throw on our bed, for Jeff to use on nights that I hog all the covers...which I guess would be every night.

Whew! It feels good to get some projects finished before the summer hits and I have no time to think, let alone be creative enough to make something interesting.

Yep, that's right, tourist season is upon us and I'll probably be doing a lot of stockinette or repetitive lace projects, because I'll have no brain left at the end of the day for anyting more complicated. Looks like it's time to crank out some felted coin purses or something equally as mindless!

Apologies for the lack of posting recently...

but someone was busy getting old....

I'll be posting pictures of the newly completed Noro Granny Square blanket soon. It turned out SO great! And I'll be posting the pattern as well.

Happy birthday to me

When my mom asked me what I wanted for my 30th birthday (coming up on April 13--a week from today!), I thought about it for a minute. Usually my gut reaction is that I don't want anything, because I can never think of something good and if I ever really want something, I usually just buy it for myself. But, since I've been thinking about learning to weave for a while now, I decided to ask for a 32" Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom so that I could kick off a new decade with a new hobby!

I got it in the mail last Tuesday and I was so excited to get it right out of the box and start creating wonderful things. The box was long and skinny and Dan at the post office jokingly accused me of trafficking weapons. But, sadly, I could not play with it right away because I had to bowl that night (our last bowling night of the year--we won the championship!)But, even though I didn't have the time to put it together, I still dumped the contents of the box to start getting my head wrapped around things. Here it all is, all laid out and ready to be covered in a coat of beautiful stain and then a coat of lacquer!

Not that looks are important, but I LOVE the lime-green knobs. Finally on Wednesday I was able to carve out some time to start the assembly process. The directions suggested staining the wood to bring out the natural beauty. Me being me, I wanted to forge ahead and forget about the added time it would take to stain it and then put a coat of lacquer on it.

But, I'm glad I practiced that little-known-to-me virtue of patience, because I really like how the staining turned out!

And here it is on Thursday after a coat of varnish.
And FINALLY, on Friday (three full agonizing days after I received it in the mail), I got to put it together and see what I could do. The assembly was very easy and I had it together in no time.

Warping it, on the other hand, did NOT take the "few minutes" that the instruction book advertised. More like two hours and a few minutes. But I'm sure I'll get better as time goes on. I was looking at the instruction book every 10 seconds, which I'm sure did much to slow me down.

Anyway, here are some shots of the loom as I'm warping it.

Pardon the yellow tint to the photo...my kitchen is super dark and the lighting in there is awful. Here is it all ready to begin the weaving process!

And here it is after I was a few inches in. I wish I would have chosen a different yarn to learn on, as Rowan Felted Tweed is rather sticky. But, I didn't really have any plans for this yarn anyway so it's as good as any for my practice piece.

I'm excited to try a different yarn very soon. I think woven Felted Tweed takes on the appearance of a burlap sack. And it's only slightly softer than that!

Stay tuned for some new weaving projects over the next few weeks!